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Tallyn Edition: Chapter 3
Summary With the floors reaching higher and the contracts getting tougher, a new weapon is necessary to continue in this business. Tallyn accepts a rather simple task from a recommended blacksmith in <> on the 48th Floor, for a promised reward. Payment Aincrad 37th Floor, July 28th, 2024, 20:31 It was night, but everything was as clear as day. The thunder and lightning so in synch that they were almost the same force. I was out there in the forests, alone. But so was my target. I got him now. *Flash*Crash* I'd been tracking him and his party for days. Now he was alone, and I had him in my sights. This time, I would catch him. He ran into the rain, and I followed behind him. I had him now. You bastard. *Flash*Crash* After the disappearances of his comrades, he was already a pressured spring. A well placed throwing pick that narrowly missed him was enough to scare him to run from a safe zone. The idiot. The bastard. You're mine. *Flash*Crash* This was not a job I had hired. This was personal, and he deserved what I had in mind. He's mine. You're all mine. *Flash*Crash* The rain poured. He stumbled, and I leapt at him. Swinging desperately, he tried to cut me with a dull edged knife. He intended for people to suffer as long as possible. One of them paralysis types. Flashing in orange cursors, I spit on them. He's not orange, but his had worn off. They're the worst of the worse. I knocked his arm aside and forced my left foot on his wrist. The pressure was too much, and he dropped the weapon in the mud puddle he laid in. I reached out to grab my clothes with his left, but I caught it. *Flash*Crash* I wasn't letting him get away with what he has done countless times. But he now messed with the wrong player. I stretched his arm out as high as I could hold. He struggled to release his left hand, even trying the kick my back by swinging his feet, and head-butting me. I repaid his attempts by cutting his arm off from the elbow. I dug my knife in and just kept pushing. he didn't deserve a quick sword skill to loosen it. I wouldn't have it. Not with him. Or his comrades. *Flash*Crash* His arm shattered in the mud and blue hexagons split through the rain. Red hexagons formed in the puddle, like blood. I grabbed the collar of his coat and held his face close to my own. I wanted him to look he in the eyes again. "See those hexagon's flying?" I asked. He didn't answer. The dog. I threw his back against the ground, it splattered as the mud rolled in all directions. A small splatter struck my face. I pulled him back up and spat the mud near my mouth at him. "Do you see them?" *Flash*Crash* "Y-y-y-y . . ." I threw him down again, then I drove my knife into his right arm. "YES! Yes! I see them! I see them!" he muttered, his voice breaking from the crying and sniffling he was creating. "How does that make you feel?" I used my left hand to wipe my face and flicked it down on him. "Are you scared?" *Flash*Crash* His eyes widened. He looked over my right shoulder. I could see no one there, so only he could see it. His health bar. No doubt the severed limb effect was taking its toll. "Do you hear the beeping already? Is your health bar already in the red zone?" He didn't answer. I pulled my knife from his arm and held it to his throat. He didn't look surprised, then again, his eyes were still panicking over his slowly depleting health. Why should he care, all his kind ever do is kill people. I pulled his head closer, and whispered in his ear. "How does it taste?" Now I had a reaction. He looked at me now. He remembered. I wouldn't forget such a speech. He drove that final blow in, and he said it. "Isn't that what you said?" I reminded him. *Flash*Crash* "How does it taste?" I drove the blade in further. He started screaming, but I stuffed his mouth with his own robes. The water was now forming a small pond around the path he lay against, rising and filling into his ears. "My blade." I pushed it further in, hexagons now started leaking out. "In your throat." I slid the dagger to one side and opened a bigger wound, the jabbed the pointy end in to the other. "How does it taste?" *Snap* Gah! Shit. *Flash*Crash* My dagger blade snapped. The loose end was stuck in his neck, but it didn't last long, it too shattered into fragments. I threw the rest away. "You're lucky my durability ran out." The blade shattered completely. I was left seemingly unarmed. But I already did enough damage to him. He was as good as dead by now. More than he deserved. I've already stained this blade too many times. I grabbed either side of his neck with both hands. I then moved my thumbs over his neck wound already. Despite being realistic, the game did allow him to talk, so he should have already spoken, but no matter what he would have said. He was dead to me. Now I'll have to do this bare handed. I dug them both in, and I forced his health to deplete. Every last pixel of it. *Flash*Crash* *Flash*Crash* *Flash*Crash* I never smiled once during that whole ordeal. Aincrad 48th Floor, July 29th, 2024, 08:23 "Where have you been, you idiot!" shouted the pink haired blacksmith, as soon as my face entered through her shop. I lied a bit when I said I wasn't on a job. that last part wasn't part of it, but I was still in the middle of something while I found my prey. I had accepted a mission to gather items for a blacksmith in <> on the 48th Floor. She was highly recommended by a lot of the clearers; the DDA (Divine Dragon Alliance), KOB (Knights of the Blood Oath), even the FK (Fuurin Kazan) had good reviews of her smithmanship. But what they didn't tell me was that the owner liked to blow her mouth off at customers. When I accept Lisbeth's job request ten days ago, it was just to search a dungeon for a few metals for her forge, since her last expedition had scared her half to death. Nearly death would be a better description. I had done jobs before, but now it felt like hard labour when she started piling up more items into the job. It was getting ridiculous to the point I nearly blew off the contract just to get away. But I sucked it in, and after blowing some steam (bad choice of words for this situation), I was finally getting paid. I didn't exactly receive the warmest reception when I arrived finally. I sighed as I walked up to the counter, flicking open my menu. "Sorry it took so long." "I wish, I'm talking about the fact deleted me from your friends list. Again!" Yeah, I did that also. That had actually been a few weeks before that, but it seemed like she had only just noticed. I didn't bother looking her in the eye. It was her own fault, the first time anyway. "You went up against a Wyvern, the first one was on you." "Then what's the second offence, hmm? Standing too long in the blades section of my shop." I didn't have time for this. Explanations and all, when I have a job to fulfill. "I have my own reasons." I opened up the trade request and sent it to her. "Well fine. Don't tell me." She accepted the request. "Idiot." That's the second time today she's called me that. At least, I can walk aw-, no wait, never mind that. I opened up to my inventory, and continued scrolling till I found what I was looking for. "Here. As promised." She rolled her eyes and half shut them again. "*sigh* Well, at least you're reliable. To say the least." I pressed the items in my inventory and started flicking them over. "Is this everything?" she asked. I called the items out as I added them to the trade request. "Fifty iron ingots, twenty gold ingots, eighty iron wood logs, and five special metal equip ingredients; one strength, one resist, one paralysis, one burn, and one speed. Is that it?" "Yeah, well thanks I guess, even after everything you pulled." "And as promised; 500,000 Cor + 20,000 for the within two weeks guarantee." I pressed accept, and the trade was made. My wallet was 520,000 Cor heavier, and Liz had her items. "Well, I suppose that's it then. Unless you want to tell me that you've found a new blacksmith that your seeing behind my back. Because if that's the case, buster, then you can just walk straight out of here!" Breathe it in I told myself. Just ask and get the hell out. "Actually, I could do with a new dagger, if you wouldn't mind." She opened her eyes to look more observantly at the dagger equipped to my left side. "Why? The one you're carrying seems to be perfectly fine. And that durability bonus I added to it should still be holding." I then shifted and showed off my right side when the empty hilt now laid there empty. Missing it's better half. "Well, my spare blade got broken during the request, after taking down some seriously high leveled monsters." It's not a complete lie, it actually reflects the truth quite reasonably. Liz was bserving my speech, closing one eye and widening the other, like she was trying to look for that little clue that would tell her the truth in a magnifying glass. "What kind of monsters are we talking about?" No lies, just . . . poetic representation, I guess. "Humanoid, bloodthirsty, and lots of them." The way I answered it, was what started to let her body shrink back behind the counter. "O-kay. Well, what kind of dagger are you looking for?" "Something better than my current dagger." I drew out <> from its sheath and placed it on the counter. despite the fact she already knew I had it, and previously upgraded it, she might had been a little rusty on its stats. <> wasn't a personal name, the blade itself was very powerful, and as it says, it could cut through a sword, even break it with the right combination of sword skills, strength and accuracy. "Hmm, well it's very highly upgraded. And this is one of the best daggers you can get in the game." She opened her menu and scanned over her storage, flicking up and down the page. But came back with now results. "I don't exactly have something better than that in stock. And even with the materials I have, I can't guarantee that either." I sighed and sheathed my <> back. "Oh, ok then. I get going now." I would have to consider another blacksmith, but the problem was there were only a few who would be able to craft the item I requested, as well as not rip me off as badly for its cost. I supposed that Volcun, the official blacksmith of the KOB could do me in; the guild is honourably and I doubted Heathcliff would expect such a person to be dishonest about his prices. Or perhaps, Caspian? Shierra? Maybe not. I decided to at least try Volcun first. I made it half way through the shop before she yelled "Wait!" I stopped and turned my head, as she punched her right hand into her left palm. A wild idea had just taken her mind. "I remember hearing something from Asuna the other day." She paused for a moment to think, then snapped her fingers when she remembered. "Yes." I very much had doubts that what she was going to tell me would get me a new dagger I wanted. "Are you going to let me in on it." "This is your lucky day, magpie." I twitched when I had my nickname. It wasn't a nickname she made herself. It was one I earned, but not for the reasons everyone thought it was. The name had nothing to do with <> or anything shiny and metal. "I know how we can kill two birds with one stone." "What do you have in mind?" "A good client of mine has given me info that . . ." I should have interrupted, but my mind set was focused on finishing my own mission. I two of my own birds to kill with a stone. "Is this source of your reliable, because I'm not wasting my time on a fool's errand." She pouted, but I didn't blame her. I was rude at this point, but my lack of fucks I gave was breaking the scale. "Talk about ungrateful much. And what who you're talking about! This happens to be the Second-in-Command of the Knight's of the Blood Oath you're talking about." I shrugged my shoulders. "So." I knew all about <>, from the times I saw her in meetings before boss raids, field or floor didn't matter. She was very commanding and demanding of players, even of those who weren't a member of the KOB. While I could say that there was a lot of determination from her to finish the game, from the last time I met her, she wasn't the inspirational leader the clearers needed. Not being prejudice here, but she may be the third highest leveled player in the game, but I would never follow her into battle. It was an attitude thing I had about her. She never seemed to be able to smile or relax at the least. Though I haven't seen her since March when she lost a duel to Kirito, I doubted she changed much since then. "Alright, then! If you're going to be so stubborn, then I won't even bother you." "Just spill it." "One of these days, I'm gonna stab you with your own daggers." She managed to restrain herself, no matter how much shit I was giving her. We both knew that this was a safe zone so no matter what attacks she threw at me, it wouldn't kill me. Plus, I coul easily take her with the weapons I was equipped with, and my level advantage "On the 3rd Floor, an event mob has appeared. It's called a Cerynian Hind." I rose an eyebrow. that was a weird sounding mob. A hind is a description for the back of something, like hind legs are the back pair on a beast. I had no idea where Cerynia was, but it wasn't in <>. "A what?" She thought on it for a while, no doubt trying to remember what Asuna had told her, in between all the times she had teased her in between sentences. "It's like a deer, but it has metal antlers and hooves. It's from Greek mythology, but the point is that catching it will drop a rare metallic item, that I can then use, or so I have heard." I slumped against a display case and crossed my arms. She glared, and I stood straight back up. "And how does it get me dagger?" "If you're so smart, figure it out. If you get it, I'll make a dagger out of what you bring as payment. Interested?" I thought for a while. 3rd floor didn't sound too hard, but then why was the mission still available if a high leveled player knew about it. And if so, how could they not know the drop reward to be accurate. "What's the catch?" "The deer is like super fast. Not even Asuna could catch it, and she's the fastest person in Aincrad. So, good luck." I rolled my eyes, and started walking out of the door. I then pressed my eyes with my finger and thumb, rubbing them to clear my sight. "*sigh* This is going to be my whole week, isn't it?" "And don't come back without it, you hear?" I reached the door, and struck out two fingers in her direction without turning around. "Two weeks guarantee. I've never broken a contract." I left through the door, and it shut behind me. Just promises Aincrad 29th Floor, July 30th, 2024, 14:58 "You say a quest?" Well I just asked him about it, so yeah that's what I was talking about. I did reach the 3rd Floor, but I had no idea where to start looking; the floors were like the size of a small city each, then you had the safe zone slap bang in the middle of them. And if this beast was as fast as they said it was, then I could search for months without finding it if I didn't limit my area of search. I heard from a few sources that the Hind was part of an event quest that popped up after a <> on the 1st Floor, and a <> on the 2nd. Both of these quests had been issued by an NPC who handed them out as a quest since the 50th Floor was cleared. Judging from various sources, the NPC was the same person for both, which meant the same could be said about this one. I nodded and the players pointed me to the west side of Town. "Yeah, you ask that guy over there and then you can start tracking it. But you'd have to be super fast or insane to think you can finish it." I coughed up the 1,000 <> I promised, and since that was the 27th guy I had already asked, I already was down by 35,000 <>, well that was because some of them wanted a little more sweetening. "Right, thanks." I'm going to tour guide through this town, so I'll just skip ton when I saw the NPC; he was dressed like a Greek, tunic, and what else you'd expect; sandals, a cloak to keep the rain off, and his fingers were glistening in rings made of gold and silvers. I looked above his head, it had an "!" in a squared speech bubble , and his name above that; <>. That tied in to the mythology well, since he issued a quest to get the beast in the original tale. "Fitting name I guess." At least the developers stuck somewhat to their source material. I walked in front of him, his head was facing down to stop he rain (if there was any) out of his face. "Hello, may I be of assistance?" I could have said 'hi, need help', to save some words for later, but some NPCs responded to rudeness so I made a lucky break and played safe. I couldn't afford to waste my time waiting for him to respond again. Then I realized just how flamboyant the NPC was programmed. He raised his head as if he was going to look at me, but his head kept tilting upwards till he was basically looking down one me. He wasn't particularly tall, my character model was still taller than he was, but the way he stood tried to make me feel smaller. A list of words appeared before me in a small box. Then his eyes opened and his mouth began to move. I could have read the text, but I wanted to hear what kind of voice they programmed this guy with more, even though that meant going through the whole list. This thing had a scroll icon on it, so it was long. His cloak slipped up his right arm as he raised it like holding a cloud in his hand, with his left still clinging to his cloak to stop it from slipping off his shoulders. "Brave hero, I am a travelling man of great wealth and power." Could have fooled me I thought sarcastically. In my travels . . ." Yeah, you get picture, I won't bore you, but I must say that it was very long. Since he was already in mid speech, no matter what I said he would keep on speaking. the only thing that would make him stop was for me to leave his area of conversation, which would mean restarting the whole speech from the beginning. I flicked through my menu, checking my items and such. I re-equipped my <> I kept in my inventory for spares. It was definitely not a good trade for the <> that shattered, but I had no time to be worrying, I needed to keep my spare on hand in case. ". . . and to which you see me here." He finally stopped and got to the point, as I closed up my menu. "If you could. I ask that you subdue the nimble beast, the Cerynian Hind. I wish to gaze upon it's beauty before this world of ours is destroyed." "Sure." Could have said yes, or certainty, but he's just a bunch of pre-recorded 1's and 0's so it didn't matter how I said it, as long as I didn't insult him. "You will. Oh, splendid. Wonderful news. The beast in question makes its home in the Forest of Wavering Mist. Bring it to me within the week, or I will give up on your abilities and offer this request to another." "Great." It was a sarcastic response, but the NPC didn't pick up on it. I opened my map up in my menu and just walked out of town. * * * Some time later, and I had no luck. I started the day in the afternoon, which was a bad idea to begin with, which meant that after a few hours after I finally reached my destination, the sun was declining. If I wasn't careful I was going to get hunted down by monsters. I was just lucky I was on a lower floor, the only monsters I had to be careful of was a lot of them targeting me at once. Even a player in his Level 80's would have difficulty sticking around when there is an endless horde of mobs. But this was a low level designed for players in their 20's at most so I could stay here for months realistically. But I didn't have months to spare. It was about 9, 9:30 when I finally had my first clue; using my tracking skill I found a deer's footprints, lightening up in fluorescent green. The biggest clue was that there were no deers naturally spawning on this floor, so this had to be it. My second clue was the following morning, after exhausting myself following the trail till 1, when I actually saw it. It was just as described, a deer with metal hooves and antlers. I was about to dash it, but better instincts took over. Running won't catch it; even the speediest players could catch it running, so there's no use trying. I was right, but I needed to catch it. A trap possibly? But how could I trap it? Despite being a first day attempt, I needed a good idea of its speed. I reluctantly walked up to it, dagger in hand. The moment I closed in 10m, it looked around and saw me. I lunged, but I knew I couldn't reach it. The moment I made quick movement, it ran. Its speed was unquestionable, like a race car had just accelerated, it went from 0 to 80 in less than a second. And it was gone. Hmm, when I got close, it noticed me. Maybe there's away to avoid detection getting close to it? Then my luck changed, when it started raining. Water was now obstructing my tracking, as my 70m view in the mist was limited to less than 50m. I raised my hood and sheathed my dagger. "This will be fun." Aincrad 48th Floor, August 5th, 2024, 07:14 I staggered headfirst into Liz's shop. The aches in my joints, the scrapes and scratches that hadn't replenished yet, and my general exhaustion and tiredness were still on the rise. Camping had never been a nice option for me, but when you were awake 24/7 and eating little to nothing, the weight of the games mechanics really hits you hard. I held one knee from the floor, and continued to walk my way to the main counter. The overnight NPC store watcher, Liz's hired help for transactions, <> was there, smiling, which really creeped me out, until I remembered she was just data. I pulled myself up to the counter. "Welcome to Lisbeth's Blacksmith Shop. How may I help you today?" she asked. I didn't know very much about what she would respond to, since I did all my deals with Liz directly. "I need to speak with Liz, *gasp* Lisbeth." I would have stuck with just her nickname, but I wasn't sure how <> would have responded or if her programming would have allowed her to deduce the correct player. "One moment please." She got off from the counter and walked off behind the doors to Liz's forge in the back of the shop. I waited, but the weight of my eye lids was too much now. Without really thinking, I just let myself slip into sleep on the counter. * * * I was still asleep until *WHAM* I jolted up, almost to the point of screaming as I fell backwards off the counter. I hit my head on the display case in the center of the shop. I pulled my hood back to rub my head. "Six days. That has to be a record." I looked up and there Liz was, standing over me with one hand firmly flat on the counter, with a huge smile on her face and proud gloating eyes sneering down on me. I huffed and picked myself up. I at least had a good few minutes, so I wasn't as tired, and even if I was, I was not letting her see me at my worst again, especially after pulling off that little trick on me. "The guy only gave me seven. So I had no choice but to come this early." "You could at the very least seem happy that someone cares." I couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or what at this point, but I was still too tired out to really care what she thought of me. I was finished and I needed a holiday for a few days to recuperate. I slumped onto the counter, resting on my elbows, before forcing myself to stand up with no support. "I spent six days chasing a deer that could run like the wind. *gasp* Not all the sprinting points in the world would have even let me get that close. *gasp* Did you know that it rains in a mist, like all the damn time? The 3rd Floor is not a vacation spot." I licked my right hand and opened up my menu to prepare for the trade. "But I got it." "How?" "I waited till it was dark, used my tracking and paralyzed while it was asleep." I pulled out one of my throwing picks. I still had one jar of <> left on me from just over a year ago. Shame I had to waste it on something less meaningful. "Then I brought it to the guy." "What guy?" I rubbed my eyes, trying to remember what that Greek fellow even looked like. I could then picture a faded image of him in my head, but I seemed to have added rain and mist to his memory. "Some pompous MPC that handed out the quest. He got to see it and I got the payment for it." I tapped my pocket, just for show that it was true, not that I kept my <> in there. She put her "That's good and all, but there's one little problem; what about the rare drop?" I dragged the item in question and placed it in the trade option. I hit yes and sent it to her. "Here. This is it." She looked over it. the item said <>. It was exactly as it described, like a pot of quicksilver, or as many people know it, mercury (Hg). She accepted the trade and the pot fell into her hands. "Where did you get it? If you didn't kill the Hind, then where did . . ." she stopped and stared at the pot, them queasily moved her head away from her arms. "Please don't say I'm holding poop again?" I rubbed my head as I thought back. I remembered it, but it was hurting my head like this. The lighting in the room was stinging my eyes, and I had to shut them for a while and massage them. "Funny thing; the moment I paralyzed it, another NPC appeared in the woods, and basically said since I chose to not kill it, I could get the drop bonus for free without having to fight her for it if I had killed it." "So that NPC was also a field boss?" I nodded, but I wasn't entirely sure of the situation. I was so tired and hurt at the time, I was really kind of in and out of the conversation. "Could have been, and I'd hate to think about what kind of level she would have been. She had a chariot and arrows, I would have had no chance of escaping if she went to kill me." "That was probably Artemis then. The Hind is a sacred animal to her, so I guess that makes sense that the NPC praised you for the hunt rather than the kill." She held the pot in one hand, on top by two fingers since the idea of it being faeces had not escaped her thoughts. "But let's cut to the chase. What I have here is more than enough, and always keep my promise." She entered through the door, and the fires started stoking. I stayed behind in the main shop, but I then smirked, with a cruel response. "Except when you left your shop to kill a dragon." I could hear her voice yelling at me from the forge behind the doors. "Because I'm a nice person, I'll pretend that I didn't hear that and make your stupid dagger instead." I waited outside. the counter seemed to be calling me to rest again, but the thought of waking up again with another wham stopped me from accepting the offer. I waited, whilst leaning back to the central display case, nearly sitting on it at one point, but as soon as Liz opened that door again to rejoin the conversation, I jumped to my feet. In her hands was a very sharp and slightly curved dagger. It was silver in colour and its blade edge was very slim, like a Tantō. "And we're done." She paced it on the counter and opened up its stats. She seemed satisfied with the results and wiped her forehead. "*phew* That took some effort. But as promised, a better dagger than the Sword Breaker." I held the blade in my hand. A box opened up with a trade request from her. the blade was called <>. Funny how I mentioned mercury earlier back and it had come back around. The list said it was a heck of a lot better than my <> was, even with its upgrades. Better damage receiver, piercing, durability, speed was definitely highest. It really did check out. I gave it a few motions, just to get the feel of it. "It's really light." "You got the best metal from a fast mob, of course it's light since it was made from a speed type metal." I smiled for a short time. I hit accept and sheathed it into my empty sheath to my left side. I flicked my hood up and replied "thanks" before I took my leave. "What are you going to do now?" "Find my next kill" I answered, quickly unsheathing my new dagger and spinning it mid air between forehand and backhanded holds. "I feel like testing this out in the field soon." "Well make sure to come back soon, so you can pay me to boost that durability. Speed types tend to have lower durability." I shook her off with a wave from my right hand that seemed uninteresting. "I'll be back soon, but I'll make sure to leave it for the weaker monster." Or weakened. Category:AdamantiumBladez Category:Chapter